León Cathedral is widely considered to be the best showcase of gothic architecture in Spain. Known as the "Pulchra Leonina", it was built in the French gothic style. It may be said that it is the most "French" of all the great Spanish gothic cathedrals built during the 13th century.
The monarch Ordoño II turned the former Roman baths of the original plot into a royal palace. In the year 916, after defeating the Arabs at the Battle of San Esteban de Gormaz and as a sign of gratitude to God for the victory, he gave the palace to the Church so that a basilica could be erected.
Nowadays, visitors can admire a cathedral divided into three naves from the entrance to the transept and five naves from the transept to the main altar. The layout is almost a replica of Rheims cathedral. It is flanked by two Gothic towers measuring 65 and 68 metres and its dimensions are 90 m long, 30 m high and 29 m wide.
It is a work of art, the fruit of the rapprochement between the theologian and the artist.
Chapels
Its chapels house artistic treasures and masterpieces from various eras and in various styles, including the following:
Stained Glass Windows
As the historian Nieto Alcalde points out, the stained glass windows or "translucid walls" should be contemplated together, "as a resource for achieving a unitary tonality, without excluding the function of serving as singular supports in which the truths of the faith are depicted, as had been done in the frescoes of the Romanesque churches until then".
